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No I did not rinse the gravel from the established tank I didn't want to wash the good stuff away. The established tank is empty now I only had my platys and a couple guppies in it, I will get the API test kit soon.

I believe what she wanted t0 kn0w was whether 0r n0t y0u rinsed anything 0ut 0f y0ur filter with tap water. The gravel will h0ld a small am0unt 0f BB, but the majority 0f the c0l0ny lives inside 0f y0ur filter. Rinsing the media in tap water (unless y0u have well water) will usually wipe 0ut BB due t0 the chlorine that the water pr0vider adds t0 the supply.

that's what I hoped you were talking about. I think I know why you have the cloudy water.
If you tossed the charcoal, even though it was old and most likely not doing anything for your water clarity, there still would have been some BB on it and the cartridge fiber that held it so you threw away some of your BB with the charcoal. When you replaced it with new charcoal, new BB started to grow and caused a bacterial bloom.
For future reference, it doesn't hurt to leave the old charcoal and cartridge in your filter. Most here on the AC don't bother with charcoal unless they are attempting to remove medication from the tank.
Hopefully, if you watch your water parameters as we previously discussed, and do W/C's if you see ammonia or nitrites, you'll be back on track shortly.

that definitely looks like a bacterial bloom.
you should test your water daily before feeding. to recap: if ammonia and or nitrites go over .25ppm do a 50% W/C using enough conditioner to treat the entire 40 gallons. once you see 0 of both then you can drop back to weekly water changes (as long as your nitrates stay around 20 or less) and cut back to weekly water testing as well. once you're certain the tank is stable (consistent 0 ammonia and nitrite readings which means the tank is cycled) you can test your water only occasionally as long as you're making your weekly water changes and your nitrates are staying low.
once it's cycled, you can start adding more fish -- but only a few at a time and no more often than monthly is a good idea. this gives your BB a chance to grow to accommodate the new stock. you should also test your water a week or so after adding new stock to make certain you're not having a mini cycle which could cause an ammonia spike. If so, then do extra W/C until ammonia goes back to 0. make sense?

I don't want to confuse you more ... but - IF your tank turns out to be NOT cycled (like the BB did die off because you didn't feed it for 48 hours and you're getting ammonia readings) then during this cycle stage don't vac the gravel. Don't clean the filters, don't touch anything in the tank. You want your BB to grow on every possible surface during the cycle stage. Only after the tank is fully cycled do you want to start cleaning the gravel on a regular basis. make sense?

And food for thought - IF it turns out that your BB died off which means the tank isn't cycled because you're getting ammonia readings, those 2 platies in a 40 gal tank are not going to produce much waste so very little BB is going to grow. You might want to consider returning them to the fish store and doing a fishless cycle. It's simple and so much faster and easier than doing multiple water changes for several weeks.

It would simplify this so much if we knew what your water parameters are so we could deal with your specific situation instead of trying to provide multiple fixes depending on whether you're cycling or not :o(

Nice tank BTW. have you considered adding a background to hide the electrical cords? Also, some driftwood and more plants would fill it out nicely.

It has been a very busy week!! I tested my water daily and I did notice a spike in ammonia and nitrites but they never got over .25ppm. The water is totally clear now and my ammonia and nitrites have been reading 0 for the past 2 days. Iv been waiting to buy plants until I found more wood, I did get some Manzanita branches today and I'm going to get some black poster board for the back.